Letters to the editor, Feb. 12

One of the first things I did when I came to Kingston in the seventies, in those days before Feb Fest, was to start beating the drums for an all-out, citywide Dicken’s festival.

"Hey, what a great idea! A festival for Little Jimmy Dickens!" a neighbour who liked country music, enthused, beginning to hum his, May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose. …

"CHARLES Dickens!" I corrected. He’d have been 206 years old this past Feb. 7, with new takes still being made on many of his 14 and a half deathless novels. We could attract otherwise blase tourists, not just from the U.S., with our unique 19th-century setting, including downtown cobblestones. This could include re-enacting Dickens’ arrival here by ship at our waterfront; his visit to Kingston Penitentiary (which should take centre stage); his stay at the British American Hotel (which subsequently burned to the ground only to be resurrected in today’s equally charming Sheraton).

Kingstonians would be encouraged to dress in 19th-century woolen warmth, with selected quartets singing under lamp posts downtown, recruited from our vast army of choirs. Brock Street boutiques would flourish as well as those around Market Square with old-fashioned skaters to wow us with romantic old tunes. Horse-drawn wagons and sleighs …

Both English departments of Queen’s University and RMC could stage readings of his works, while The Isabel could indulge in his penchant for drama. Everyone would benefit and the whole wild thing would bring in much-needed tourist dollars.

It could also change Kingston’s standing in the eyes of Canadians, no longer merely the rejected capital of the country but also the burying place for our rejected founding father (whose statue even now may be tarred and feathered in the park). Dickens could do for us what a certain red-headed girl does for an entire potato-producing province.

Dickens and Kingston. Inseparable. Something our whole town could get behind.

Rose DeShaw

Kingston

Same standard for all

How sad to see Robin Baranyai, in her column "Disbelieving women has silenced them for decades" (Feb.3), say: "It is right for parties to hold their leaders to a higher standard."

This would imply that such high standard is something to which I and my friends need not adhere since we are not in any public office.

What nonsense! The standard to which a leader must adhere is the same standard to which he or she should always have been adhering.